What's the most significant difference you've found with 4e from 3e?

[MerricB]

G'day, all!

My players were recently chatting about how D&D 4e seemed more deadly than D&D 3e (I don't think it is), but out of that discussion came what, to me, is the most significant change made in 4e from 3e:

No more wand of cure light wounds

If anything changed the entire tenor of the game, it was the wand of clw. It meant basically unlimited healing, and if you weren't killed outright by a blow you'd be saved and back to full HP after the combat.

Sure, 4e has healing surges and short rests, but they are extremely limited resources. Boy, are they limited!

So, despite all the changes to powers, classes, races, rules and the like, for me the most significant change has been the removal of the wand of cure light wounds.

What's do you find the most significant change or difference between the editions? (Or you can comment on the wand, if you like. )

Cheers!

 

[Nightchilde-2]

Running the game is actually fun and enjoyable. That's the biggest difference I've seen.

 

[Rechan]

We almost never have to look something up at the table.

The other is that it's completely impossible to play in a text-based online form. Due to the focus on the battlemat, when the initiative dice are rolled, it becomes more painful than 3e was.

 

[Fallen Seraph]

From DM side: It isn't hard or complex to setup engaging encounters or scenarios.

From a Player side: Combat both feels and is much faster.

There are many other things, but some of them tie neatly into those two, so those probably are the largest.

 

[malraux]

Running the game is actually fun and enjoyable. That's the biggest difference I've seen.

Yup. And preping to run is so much less arduous. I can remember that in 3e, I'd spend 30+ minutes getting one monster ready, and far more than that if I wanted to do anything weird. I'd say that's cut in half, and that's getting stuff prepared far more formally.

 

[Henry]

Falling Damage

Falling damage is for my players almost as scary as in real life, now.

I'll never forget in a game about eight months ago the 12th level fighter who jumped out of a 110-FOOT TREE, took 43 damage, got up and joined in a fight with around 70 or 80 hit points remaining. While cool, it was so over the top we are still referring to it, as late as our most recent session.

Now, that 12th level fighter would have around 90 to 100 max hit points, and taking a 60-point fall or so, with a potential to be a 100-point fall, would not be something he did lightly. And that fighter would look at a 500-foot drop and shy away like a level 1 green recruit...

 

[Shieldhaven]

The Rules Aren't The Same between PCs and NPCs. This has far-reaching implications that I didn't fully appreciate until I'd been playing 4e for awhile and thought about the things I could not conveniently do anymore.

If, in a game, PCs and NPCs obviously operate on the same rules, there is more room for mystery plots, as players can look at the capabilities open to them and make some deductions.

It is also more tempting to run plots with strictly normal (i.e., PC-like) antagonists.

3e had become more of a burden than a game. It is too clunky. But it, and editions before it, in some ways attempted to describe a fantastical universe, consistent between PCs and NPCs. 4e does not attempt this in any way that I can discern, and I am not entirely willing to give up on that. I think my response to this will be to build a wide variety of strictly normal statblocks, an expansion of the human, elf, dwarf, etc., entries in the MM. Their powers will be cognates of PC powers, and recognizable as such. If they do a little more or less damage, that's not really relevant.

B

 

[Fifth Element]

The Rules Aren't The Same between PCs and NPCs.

"Please phrase your answer in the form of a difference between 2E and 3E."

 

[Asmor]

The ease and flexibility of making monsters.

 

[That One Guy]

Biggest difference is how eager I am to play or run it.
In example, every class seems interesting and exciting to me (although I think fighters and rogues may have become my faves...).

Ruleswise? The game being focused around the power mechanic. I don't think it's a perfect design, but I like it a lot more than 3.x.